Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Hello
everyone, I hope you enjoyed my last post on Lindsay. If you had the chance to catch the docu-series, feel free
to comment on it. I’d like to see if you agree or disagree with me, or if there
were some shocking moments I forgot to mention.

This post includes a Q&A with
director/writer and my friend Ethan Barrett. He is the creator of Turkey Donut,
a YouTube channel he launched a few months ago. There’s also a surprise if you
scroll down. I was involved in one of his videos. Make sure you click and watch
to find out how.

1. What inspired you to pursue a
career in filmmaking?

Ever since I was a kid, I knew I
wanted to make movies. On weekends I wanted to go out to the movies. When my
friends came over, I asked them to bring movies over. I can't really explain
the motivation behind it; it's just always been there. However, I had no idea
you could do "filmmaking" as a "career." It never occurred
to me - as kids we're told to become something like a firefighter or doctor or
teacher or engineer. That lasted basically until I got to college, when I found
out other studies were actually taking "film classes" where all they
did was talk about and make movies. My first semester I added a film major and
the rest is history.

2. What kind of content will we
see on your channel?

For my channel you can expect the
unexpected. It's a no-holds-barred type of comedy in which the most outlandish
thing (within limits) happens and takes a huge turn. Hopefully no one sees the
endings coming in Turkey Donut Videos, and it’s all the better for that.

3. How did you come up with the
name for your channel?

It's hard to say... Originally
the name for the channel was, "Challegne Voidoes." I don't need to
explain that was almost impossible to refer people to. So I needed to come up
with a new name, and the idea of a walking and talking donut popped in my head.
Then I mixed it with a turkey, because they're funny, too. Right?

4. What's the story behind
"Haunted Shoes?" What motivated you to do it?

The first time I ever watched a
reality show, I laughed my head off because I thought the whole thing was
supposed to be a joke. I mean, who's really that vocally open about what's
going on around them when it's so obvious? Who needs narrators to elaborately
exaggerate minor conflicts? Just taking the idea of having two people walking
up to each other and introducing each other on television - that's kind of
dumb! There are a dozen camera people around, and of course these people have
met before. You can just see it in their faces. Reality TV's just funny to me,
and it's never funnier than when it takes itself absolutely seriously. Then,
one day a friend was watching one of those "spooky house" shows where
a ghost-hunter explores a haunted house in night vision, pokes his head around
the corner, and has to TELL us that something really scary is going on. Haunted
Shoes was my reaction to that show. Reality TV is just hokie; it tries to
convince us that the situation is much more dire than it really is. Because
even though we may be exorcising evil ghosts, in the end they're still just
boiling shoes in ketchup.

5. What is your favorite scene
from "Haunted Shoes?"

Probably the scene where Bob runs
off and we hear the sound of the ketchup squirting out of his shoes. Because
everyone's taking everything very seriously while all the while the situation
is pretty ridiculous.

6. Can you give us a sneak peak
on videos we might be seeing in the near future?

You can definitely expect to see
a lot of more of the favorite characters from Turkey Donut. More planned with
Major Tim, Bill of Bill Rates, and Shirley Martinelli Buford, Jr. And Sigmund
will soon be embracing a career in hip hop.

Monday, April 21, 2014

Hello everyone! It’s nice to be back after two months. You
might remember a blogpost from July 14th of last year in which I
talk about the announcement of Lindsay Lohan’s docu-series on the OWN network.
Well, today was the finale of the seven-episode show and I will be giving my
personal points of view. So, if you haven’t finished watching, stop reading as
there will be spoilers.

I
can’t say I didn’t like it since I watched each episode religiously; however, I
had so many issues with the show! First of all, I was taken away from the
experience many times (especially at the beginning when I was figuring out the
tone of the show) because it wasn’t strictly shot like a docu-series, and there
was a lot of intervention by the crew. Audio was really bad on some scenes, such
as Lindsay’s audio when she’s being interviewed by Oprah at Dina’s house on
episodes three and four, and the literary agent’s audio in the sixth episode.
One of the things that made me laugh took place on the fifth episode. It’s a
scene with the personal assistant, AJ, and someone else having a conversation
on the street. People are walking by, aware that they’re on camera but not
knowing what to do. They look at the camera, try to hide from it, walk quickly,
etc. I just thought it was pretty funny, but also wondered where the second
camera was.

Story
wise, Lindsay was pretty much a lost cause until the last episode, maybe? I
sympathized with many of the people around her who didn’t get the credit they
deserved, which are AJ, the sober coach, and the best character of the show,
her personal assistant. I am happy though that the show didn’t really take
sides and didn’t mind showing Lindsay be a total b****, as the Indonesian lady
from the “natural lighting” photo shoot called her. (I love that they showed
that).

This
show was a guilty pleasure that kept bringing back the audience to see if
Lindsay could ever clean her act. Oprah reminded us she is a total boss with
her speeches, and even though it wasn’t great on a technical level as I’ve
mentioned already, I think the people in the story department did a good job
considering all the footage that was recorded and all the events that took
place.

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About Me

Ricardo Ramos resides in Los Angeles and works as a Story Producer in non-scripted television. He graduated with a bachelors of science in Film and a masters of science in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University and is an active member of the Producers Guild of America.
Since relocating to La La Land in 2013, Ricardo's latest TV credits include “The Riveras” for NBC Universo, “MasterChef” season eight for FOX, "Holy Foley" for WWE, "Teenage Newlyweds" and "Married At First Sight: The First Year" for FYI, among others.
Besides working in TV, Ricardo has also created original content that includes a documentary titled “Vicissitude” about the drug-related violence in his hometown of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and an instructional video for a start-up app called LightsApp. In his time off, Ricardo runs at the Hollywood Bowl with November Project, plays tennis, volunteers with GLAAD, or is having an IPA at Arclight Theatre.